Removing products and price books
Key Takeaway
Salesforce recommends deactivating a product or price book that is on an opportunity or quote. It is no longer available to users, the history of opportunity line items isn't affected, and you can reactivate it later.
Admins sometimes need to take a product or price book out of use. There are three ways to do it: deactivate, archive, or delete. Each one has a different effect on opportunities and quotes, and not all of them can be undone. The right choice depends on whether the item is still in use and whether you might need it back.
Three ways to remove a product or price book
You can deactivate, archive, or delete a product or price book. Each option has a different result, so choose the one that fits the business need before you act.
| Can you undo it? | Works on a price book in use on an opportunity or quote? | Works on the standard price book? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deactivate | Yes. You can reactivate it later. | Yes | Yes |
| Archive | No. Archiving is permanent. | Yes | No |
| Delete | Yes, from the Recycle Bin. You can restore a deleted price book and its entries for up to 15 days. | No | No |
So when you don't want to strip an item from existing opportunities and quotes, deactivation and archiving are the options to use. Salesforce recommends deactivating a product or price book that is on an opportunity or quote, because it is the safe, reversible way to stop users from using it.